New universal remote devices designed to turn off almost any television now have the capability of interfering with televisions in public and private forums. An example of such a device is marketed as “TV-B-Gone” by Cornfield Electronics, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. This device, which looks like an automobile remote, has just one button. When activated, it spends over a minute flashing out over 200 different codes to turn off televisions, the most popular brands first. This kind of non-normal repetitive rapid fire output of control codes that is outside the normal intended operation of a device is an example of chatter. Broadly speaking, chatter may be any type of interfering signals that interfere with the operation of a device.
What is needed is a device that can prevent universal remote devices from controlling devices through their normal remote control reception mechanism against the device owners wishes.